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Wednesday, February 15, 2012

In Support of New Adult Fiction

by J. Lea Lopez

Back in 2009, St. Martin's Press held a contest for a new category of fiction: New Adult. They coined the term themselves to describe fiction with protagonists slightly older than YA (age 18-26) and that would appeal to adults. There was some good response to the contest, but there were critics as well. Still are, of course. I know not all of the Write Angle crew feels NA is viable or necessary, but I think it could be a great thing. If you haven't heard of New Adult as a category, don't fret. It's not widely used or promoted just yet, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth pursuing. Hopefully I can provide some clarification and information for you to make your own decision on this emerging category.

First, let's be clear about one thing: New Adult (like YA) is not a genre. It's a category. Just as you can have YA or adult fantasy, romance, or any other genre, you would also have NA fantasy, romance, etc. With that out of the way, let's look at some other questions surrounding the NA concept.

Isn't it condescending?

I came across a blog post that asked this very question recently. In my mind, this is an easy no. Some people seem to think a New Adult categorization is somehow prescriptive, telling twenty-somethings this is what they ought to be reading, and nothing else. It's not, just as YA isn't telling teens they should be reading Sarah Dessen and not Tami Hoag. Plenty of adults enjoy reading YA, and plenty of teens enjoy adult novels. The NA category is descriptive. It allows readers and writers to identify some general characteristics of a book before they ever pick it up. Proponents of NA aren't suggesting we start carding all book buyers and only let them purchase books in their prescribed age category.

Why aren't "new adults" reading [insert list of Classics here] like I did at that age?

I've seen this argument both in YA and NA discussions of what's good or appropriate for certain age groups to read. If there's a condescending or prescriptive attitude in the discussion of NA's validity, this is it. Of course there are plenty of wonderful classic novels that encompass the spirit of what it is to be a new adult. That doesn't negate the need for more, though, does it? And it does nothing to address an audience who may want more contemporary settings, characters, and plots. Plus, I don't know about you all, but the classics (like Catcher in the Rye) were usually the subject of English class assignments and discussions, which means I wasn't going near them with a ten-foot pole when it came time for pleasure reading in high school. I've since revisited some of them now that I'm out of school.

Is it just YA: The College Years?

In talking about the New Adult category with some of the Write Angle Crew, as well as reading through blog posts and comments from other writers and agents, it seems that many people have a very narrow view of what NA is, could, or should be. The thought behind creating a New Adult category has to do with much more than just the age of the protagonist, though that is an obvious indicator. Check out this post from St. Martin's Press editorial assistant, JJ, for more on how the age of the protagonist, voice, and scope of a novel differ between YA, NA and adult fiction. She pinpoints it better than I ever could. Here are a couple of quotes that encompass the general idea:

What makes YA compelling as a read is its immediacy; a young person cannot write of him/herself from any perspective aside from “now” and “later”. With a YA voice, the past is less present, the present looms like a storm, and the future ever just out of reach. With an adult voice, there is a sense that the future has come to pass, the past is present, and the present encompasses all that has been and all that will be.

And later she states:

We, the “new adults”, have some perspective on our lives, but scope? We’re not old enough, we’re not experienced enough, we’re simply not grown-up enough. Our lives have immediacy, just as a teenager’s does, but we also possess the wisdom to understand that this immediacy cannot last for long. It’s a curious place in life [...]. The “quarter-life crisis”, if you will.

So, no. NA is not simply about kids in college, though that would certainly be a portion of the material.

The market isn't strong for NA because college-goers are too busy to read outside of academia.

Really? I suppose it's true for many, but I doubt for all. Maybe not even the majority. I can't say for certain. I know I didn't read as much during the school year, but during winter break I'd read a couple books, and over the summers I'd read as many books as I could find. Personally, my reading for pleasure peaked in late middle school and the first half of high school. Not so much because I didn't have time, but because I had a hard time finding things that interested me. Once I reached a certain age and maturity/reading level, I wasn't sure where to find books I could identify with. I devoured Dean Koontz and his backlist, and I love him to this day, but I was at a loss when it came to more literary stories that spoke to me. Even now, over the past few years, I haven't been reading as much as I used to because while Jodi Picoult and Nicholas Sparks are fine, I'm not always able to identify with the divorcee, or the widow, or the mother of two, and other kinds of protagonists that often populate contemporary women's fiction. My other option, then, is Chick Lit, which fulfills my need for a protagonist closer to my age, but I still find many of them unrelatable on other levels.

Literary agent Sarah LaPolla uses this argument as one of her reasons why NA isn't a viable market (yet) in a post from October 2011. She says:

There's a reason "The College Years" of high school TV shows fail. There's just not enough people who care. The original teen audience can't relate, the adults out of college think of it as too young, and the actual target audience is too busy being in college, working, or starting families to watch TV or read for fun.

Sure, we "new adults" are busy, but not too busy for entertainment. As for the TV show analogy, I think there are many other reasons why those types of shows usually tank (like the fact that it's often exactly the same stories as high school, except on a college campus) and it doesn't exactly translate to the New Adult category of literature.

There's no universal "new adult" experience.

Again from LaPolla's blog post:

It's true that not everyone goes to the same type of high school, or even goes to high school, but everyone goes through puberty. Everyone feels what it's like to not understand any of your emotions or why they are suddenly happening all at once or why hugging your parents is much more embarrassing than it was the year before.

With New Adult, there is no universal experience. Within the genre, there are too many niche markets to consider, which makes it that much harder to place. Not everyone goes to college or makes the same choices when entering adulthood. Even within the group who goes to college, the experiences differ in ways that are much more polarizing than going to different high schools. No matter what kind of high school you went to, we were all forced to take the same general courses or participate in the same extracurricular activities.

First, I think she simplifies the universal experience and emotional appeal in YA. There are home-schooled teens who don't know the "typical" high school experience. And while we all take the same types of general education courses, the last time I checked extracurricular activities weren't forced, and included a lot of variety for those who did participate. There are teens who excel in school, some who don't do well, and some who drop out and (maybe) get their GED. Of course we all went through puberty and there are certain emotions and phases many of us went through, but we all still experienced and coped with them differently. There's a rich and varied experience even within what some would see as the "universal" appeal of YA, and yet this same variation is seen as a negative when it comes to NA.

Variety is really the whole point here. There's variety in both YA and adult literature, and as a supporter for a New Adult category, what I'm rallying for is even more of it. Why? Because even with all the options out there, I feel like there's still a gap, and it happens to be a gap in an area I'd very much like to read.

Is it just a matter of shelving and marketing support?

I don't know, to be honest. Would you go to a section in the book store marked "New Adult"? I might. Others may not, for whatever reason. Maybe it needs a different name (especially because in a Google search I was prematurely excited to see lots of results for new adult fiction from public library websites, only to realize they were talking about new releases in adult fiction). There's obviously the conundrum of "if there's no shelf for it in the bookstore, publishers won't acquire it, so agents won't rep it."

From the perspective of traditional publishing, I agree with Sarah LaPolla's assessment that the New Adult category will come into its own eventually, but it will take time, the same way it took time for YA to be accepted and recognized. As a reader, I don't necessarily buy into the idea that it's not currently a viable market. From my experience in retail clothing sales, I know it's possible for there to be a ready and willing set of consumers for a non-existent product. Take plus size clothing as an example. For a long time there were next to no options for plus size women to find fashionable clothing, despite the overwhelming number of consumers who would've gladly spent their money on such a product if only someone was making it. Now that the plus size clothing market is booming, it's difficult to fathom that anyone would've ever thought it wasn't a viable market.

How can consumers communicate to product/service providers (whether it's a clothing company or the publishing industry) that they want a certain product if that product doesn't currently exist? And how can retailers measure sales lost to the consumer who never even walks in the door because they already know the retailer isn't selling what they want? It has to start somewhere. Perhaps this is one area where indie authors and eBooks, mostly unrestricted by bookstore shelf labels, can help pave the way and demonstrate the market for New Adult literature. However it happens, I fully support the idea of a New Adult category. What about you?

What do you think "New Adult" as a category? Would you read it? Do you write it?

33 comments:

You make a very thoughtful argument in favor of 'New Adult'. As for me, I suppose I just rebel at the thought of further compartmentalizing the market. It's not so much a question of 'can there be a category called NA' as it is 'do we need this category'? I suppose at heart I'm a lumper and not a splitter.

"The market isn't strong for NA because college-goers are too busy to read outside of academia.There's a reason "The College Years" of high school TV shows fail."I had the same response to you as this one. By the time a College Year starts, it's been at LEAST four seasons (...usually much more!) The show has run it's course. It has NOTHING to do with the market for it.

"New Adult, there is no universal experience. Within the genre, there are too many niche markets to consider, which makes it that much harder to place. Not everyone goes to college or makes the same choices when entering adulthood."

I agree with your thoughts on this as well. There's no universal experience for anything *specifically*. And guess what? There are some people who don't even go through puberty as a teen. Some athletes, for example, don't hit puberty until after they stop the sport, which could be between the ages of 18-22. So that was a silly example the agent gave. NOTHING is universal. But going on HER idea of what is universal, I'd say New Adult has universal themes for sure. What is more universal than that time in your life where you separate from your family (at least to a new extent you haven't in the past) but haven't grown your roots into the adult world yet?! To me, New Adult explores the REAL coming of age. That time in your life where you are just figuring out what your place in the world will be. For some, that experience happens instantly, and so maybe they don't need a new adult genre. OR maybe they would have appreciated that genre more as a teen. But for other "new adults", there is a transition period. The way it feels to have your first place--whether you own or rent or have a roommate. Remember that feeling? I do. And I'd say MOST adults have that experience at some point in their life BEFORE they feel "fully" adult.

I absolutely believe that these stories should be written and given a fair shot by publishers (assuming the stories are awesome, of course). Personally, though, I don't see the need to break off a separate category for them. If we do, where do we draw the line? I'm sure post-menopausal women (and men of the same age) have different perspectives and experiences than 30- and 40-somethings, so should we break off a separate category for Mature Adult? (I doubt they'd like it if we called it Old Adult.)

Does it keep going? Why not distinguish between books with a female MC, male MC, and mix of multiple MCs?

I guess I'm with Jeff that I don't think General Fiction needs to be compartmentalized this way.

Yes, when I was a teen, I wished I could identify more with characters in books. (Even with the explosion of YA lately, I don't think my teen self would have identified much with the MCs. I was weird.) It's a very "me-centered" time. Once I became an adult, though, I found I was more interested in characters who aren't like me. I already have my life. I read to experience someone else's.

Of course, getting publishers to give 18-26y/o protagonists a chance might be the tricky part, in some genres. (I seem to see plenty of it in sci-fi/fantasy, where often age is either never mentioned, or you're in a world where life experiences are drastically different from our own.)

Just my own personal take on it, of course. :)

And in response to Becca's comment, I'm not sure anyone ever feels "fully" adult, at least not the way we viewed adults when we were children. We never feel as "old and adult-like" as our parents seemed at our current age. To us, the age we are now is what's "normal" and what we've always been, and to a degree, "adults" are always those people older than we are.

I don't write it, but I do believe there is a market for it. If I had found it when I was 18-25 I would have read it. And I would have shared it with my readers friends. As it was we weren't sure what to read. (And a bit of a confession here... there were quite a few years where I didn't read because there simply wasn't something that spoke to me.)

Thanks for highlighting this category in such depth. I really hope it becomes something 'big.'

Jeff and RC - that's definitely a valid concern. Should we segment books this way, and if we do, how far should we take it. I didn't want to make this post into a thesis paper, so I didn't touch on that too much, but perhaps it's worth another post. I know Robert (RS) is going to be doing a post soon about age-based marketing, so we'll see how that ties in. I will say briefly that one reason in favor of calling out a New Adult category is to help readers identify the books and understand what they (potentially) may find within the pages. For example, I think it would be perfectly acceptable to see explicit sexual scenarios in NA that are more rare in YA. Because of this, it probably wouldn't be prudent to shelved it as YA. But with younger protagonists and a scope or voice that feels younger than the usual adult stuff, where do you put it?

Becca, I already knew we were in agreement ;-) Thanks for reading and helping keep the conversation going!

Jean, i cross posted with you. I'm in that boat now, and feel like I have been for a few years now. There are books I read to escape and sort of "live someone else's life" like RC mentioned, and those are usually the kinds of books where age isn't mentioned or doesn't matter that much. But I'd still love to have something else.

The creativity and relentlessness of marketers is a never-ending source of wonderment to me ... I'm looking forward to the day when there will a category for senior adults, who are 6' tall, with green eyes, born in the midwest, who love music and being around water. Betcha it isn't too far off.

I love this post! I am new adult age, myself, and accidentally wrote my first novel for new adults. It was really frustrating because people told me,"I can't tell if this novel is for adults or young adults." And I went,"Well, it's supposed to be about college age women really." It confused everyone who read it and has since made me feel forced to write books for a much older audience since my books will never fit into a young adult category.

I'm 27 and a reader/blogger/pretend writer. ;) I say pretend, because while I am a writer - I have taken a break for a bit to gather thoughts and deal with RL stuff.

That aside, I think the new adult genre is needed! I was talking with a girl a little younger than me who asked "Why aren't there many books targeted specifically towards my age?" College students read just like high school students do! Just like adults working one or more. I managed to read regularly while working two jobs AND going to high school (and then college).

The way I see it is that at one point of time YA wasn't even considered necessary, it's *still* shunned by some readers. But while people are reading, there is still a draw for people in similar situations or age groups as they are.

I read adult and YA as a teen, I continue to read adult and YA at my age. The age group of the characters doesn't bug me, but if having a shelf in a book store FOR "new adult" books helps someone find a book they want to read I'm all for it!

Christopher - do you think it's just a marketing gimmick? I'm not so sure. I can understand how some people see it that way. If it was just a matter of jumping on the bandwagon for a specific type of story or character and pushing it out the door for the sake of a dollar, I think we'd already see a lot more of the types of stories I'm talking about. But it's quite the opposite. I, and others, have been told our manuscripts would be a tough sell because of the age of the main characters, and that we should scale up or down in age to better fit either YA or adult fiction. And while you're more than welcome to write a novel about the trials and tribulations of a senior adult who is 6' tall with green eyes, born in the midwest, and who loves music and being around water (which would be considered adult fiction without question, unlike the types of stories I'm talking about) that segment of the population is quite small in comparison to the target audience for NA. ;-)

E.B. - I sort of did the same. I wrote the manuscript knowing it was certainly NOT young adult, but not knowing it would seem so awkward a fit for the adult market. There's no way to "young it down" for the YA market, and making the main character older would alter certain dynamics that drive the plot. So I'm not changing a thing.

Thanks for reading, Amanda! I agree that if creating a specific space or shelf in the store/library will help readers discover the books they want, I'm all for it. Of course I do understand that it could (potentially) backfire in that some people who would pick up a book from the adult shelves might not go near ones labeled "new adult". It's a challenge that will have to be sorted out in the process.

"They" keep saying write what speaks to you and it'll likely speak to someone else as well and get published. Frustrating though when the publishing industry doesn't know how to categorize it and therefore sell it. We just need someone to break through...

I always chaffed at the term YA, which I never felt accurately described my work. Even if my narrator was youthful, the world he or she inhabited was hard-edged.

Also, novels which go into the post high-school years, as does my first novel, feel out of place in the same genre as Twilight and Harry Potter. New Adult might more accurately describe even the more violent series like "Hunger Games" and "Wolf Boy."

I think if we spent some time thinking about the sitcoms that are doing really well right now, we would see that this genre is appealing to the masses - think Friends, Big Bang Theory and the like. And many of the popular *chick flick* movies deal with this age.

One of my pet peeves about YA is that someone meets someone, it must be love, but they are too young to get married so...? I think NA would give the possibility of a relationship to really develop that love well.

Very, very interesting! I started reading adult books in grade school because I'd run out of series of kids' books that appealed to me--no YA in my time! :) I started with Agatha Christie & James Herriott and moved on to just about everything from there. I think I would have enjoyed the categories of YA and NA just because it would have helped me make choices depending on my mood at the time.

I hope it will take off. I've "heard" that after its introduction a few years back, it had basically flopped. I must say that though I've been an avid reader all my life, I also read very little fiction during my four years in college. Yep, just no time with everything else I had to do.

Thanks very much for this well-written post rebutting some of the common arguments against "New Adult" fiction! I think you raise some wonderful points here. I know that in university I would spend HOURS at the bookstore (in the YA section) reading for fun, even though I had a standard courseload for a full-time student. So no, I don't think it's a simple matter of college students having no time to read for pleasure. I also wholeheartedly agree with the argument that publishers can have little idea of how consumers would respond to a new category for this demographic without trying it out. How do they know there'd be no demand?

Like you, I also get frustrated at seeing "new adult" in a Google search and then realizing they literally mean recent adult books, not "new adult"...so perhaps the name is not the best choice. But at least it *is* starting to get used more frequently in this context. It's even more frustrating to plug in searches like "college-aged protagonists" etc. to try to find what you're looking for!

Also, if anyone's interested, I'm hosting a "New Adult" reading challenge this year to encourage people to read more books for this demographic and promote this category within the blogosphere :)

Marcia - thanks for reading. It definitely hasn't exploded onto the market, but I don't think it necessarily died. I hope it continues to be relevant.

danya - I'm glad you enjoyed the post! Your reading challenge sounds great. Hopefully this category will gain in popularity sooner rather than later. We'll just have to work on calling it something else... lol

Let me first say "get out of my head" because this topic has definitely been on my mind.

I had a MS where the main characters were 17/18 and at the end of their senior year of high school. This novel had great potential of being a series of three, that would have taken them to 19/20 years old, but was told it did not work because it was beyond YA but not quite Adult. I was frustrated enough that I almost trunked it completely. Thankfully, I figured out a way to make it work by backing up a year and starting their junior year, although it changes the plot drastically. Why did I do it? Because I love the characters and their story.

This has happened to me twice now. Once in what would be the "New Adult" category and once on the other end, I found my main character in a children's book was too young for Middle Grade at the 9/10 years of age. Now I have to revamp it for young middle grade or chapter book (what it is called seems to depend on who the agent it) Very frustrating.

While the categories I think are great for helping direct people to what they want to read, they have hurt us in that now we are forced to write to a specific category. It doesn't always work.

I write it. I publish it. Some people are confused, but others love it.

What I try to do now is put the age in brackets behind the protagonist's name. It's not very pretty to look at, but it does give people an idea of what to expect. I'd love to have an actual New Adult category to put my romantic comedies in.

Angela, sorry for the late reply. Thanks for reading :-) I love your comment that categories are great at pointing readers in the direction of what they want to read but can potentially limit writers because we have to make sure we "fit" into one of those categories. So true!

Dalya, that's a great suggestion about including your character's age in the book description so readers can know ahead of time what to expect.

High-five! Anyone promoting NA deserves a high-five, or a fist-bump at the very least.

I wrote an article about NA just this week ( http://shelversanon.blogspot.com/2012/05/new-adult-or-there-be-rough-waters.html ) and then went back to find other articles to back me up. A bit backwards, I know, but I wanted to get my own thoughts out without cluttering my head with other arguments.

I wish I'd found your post first.

Your arguments are superb. I think the excuses that bug me the most are the "College Years" argument, the "College Kids Don't Read" argument, and the "Puberty" argument.

1) Yes, the College Years versions of shows suck, but not because they're based in college. It's because the writers are rehashing the same jokes all over again. Give me a NEW show that just happens to be based in college, and then we'll talk.

2) College kids don't read?! Are you KIDDING me? I was an English major with required reading out the wazoo and I still managed to read. In fact, I read Hunger Games in college. (A companion excuse is that college kids are too POOR to read, and I tackle that in my post. Bunch of hogwash.)

3) Puberty is the universal theme of YA? Really? Most books seem to go out of their way to avoid mentioning such bodily functions. Oh, LaPolla means the feelings and experiences that GO with puberty? You mean like the crazy feelings and experiences associated with college years (living alone for the first time, paying bills, legal drinking, identity exploration, choosing a major, choosing a career)? Whodathunkit.

Juliana and Shelver - thanks for reading and for coming out in support of NA fiction! You both have great sites, and I'll be keeping an eye on them both. I think there's definitely a place for NA. It's just a matter of carving out the niche and staking our claim.

I agree with RC. I don't think we should continue to keep sectioning off literature categories. While it's one thing to have a relatable protag, I don't think it's at all necessary for the experiences to be something the reader has to relate to. I've read a lot of thrillers, horrors, and mysteries, and I've never been chased by an evil entity or have been in a gun fight. My life is relatively boring. Why would I want to read about someone who has a life similar to my own? What would be the point in reading if I can't experience someone else's viewpoint or lifestyle?

With all that said, I think NA is here and will grow because many people like defining structures. I consider my latest WIP to be multi-cultural/women's fiction, but with the protag being 24 and rushing off to a country before taking on the fate her mother wants for her, it could be labled as New Adult. Granted, those aren't the main thenes, not even minor ones, but it is in the MC's background, and I won't turn down one more opportunity to get my work in front of agents.

After publishing my first novel, I discovered that I'd committed the cardinal sin of writing a book that crossed genres and categories. Is it urban fantasy, paranormal romance, or science fiction? Is it an action novel or a coming-of-age novel? It has too much "adult" content to be YA, but my protagonist is a relatively naive 22-year-old. Reviewers don't know what to do with it because it doesn't neatly fit into their preconceptions.

But I've found a number of bloggers who are current college students who fall in love with it. A nursing student, two bloggers working on their dissertations, a law student, a grad student in chemistry ... supposedly the market that doesn't have time to read. A science fiction reviewer who doesn't read paranormal romance posted a 4-star review saying he was pleasantly surprised.

I think it's fairly amazing how for decades a small group of publishers has controlled what we are allowed to read.

I would read books from this category, I actually I already have since an indie author labelled her book as a new adult and I would read more but I think it does need a different name. "New Adult" just doesn't sound right.

Thank you for pointing me this way! I love this post. It gave me a lot of fodder to chomp on. I've unwittingly written a New Adult novel, but I didn't go into it thinking, "Okay. So this and this and this are what these characters should be dealing with because they're twenty." Like most stories, mine evolved after I'd already put my characters into their particular situation. Of course, my story is also set far into the future in a dystopian world, so my characters are dealing with some very different things than the usual college kids. Very interesting!

Now I'm embarrassed: I just queried LaPolla thinking she may be open to a NA series. I'm so sick of not being able to publish JUST because my MC is 22. I don't want to publish in adult fiction, I want YA or NA. It doesn't fit anywhere else. It doesn't make sense anywhere else, AND IT WON'T BE SEEN IN THE SEA OF BS THAT FILLS THE GENERAL ADULT FICTION SECTION! Give me a break! How many times must I hear how great my writing is and how the story is very engaging/exciting?? What does it mean if at the end you say, "But, unfortunately, it doesn't fit the YA standards because of your MC's age." Sooooo I just call it a day, give up of my series, and start using my stacks of manuscripts as bedstilts? HELP ME!

I don't know how I missed all these other comments. My apologies! I'm happy to hear of people who are writing and reading New Adult fiction. The industry is slowly coming around!

Eliza, I recommend you check out naalley.blogspot.com for info on which agents are accepting NA subs. Also, #NALitChat happens every week on twitter at 9pm eastern, so check out the hashtag and jump into the conversation! :-)